Online This Month

As any cynical PC or Xbox gamer will enumerate you, a big reason wherefore the SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs series has been for a like reason successful on PS2 is its lack of competition. While tactical shooter are being step quickly into the ground on other platforms, the not many that make their way to Sony’ soothe are generally along the lines of watered-down Kool-Aid—kinda miry looking and a poor imitation of the real thing (see exhibit spirit Recon). SOCOM has always been the exception.

But with SOCOM 3 (coming this October to PS2) developer Zipper Interactive is looking to create an online military shooter that can be rivals with the big boys as well. Land and water vehicles? Check. 32 players? Check. fresh modes and community features? Sir, ye sir.

Taking upon Xbox Live

It may look overly ambitious just for single game, but No. 3’s community interface promises more than what we’ve seen in any PS2 title, and it plane looks to challenge Microsoft’s acclaimed Xbox Live service in more [i]or[/i] less ways. Yet according to Zipper Interactive Multiplayer Designer CJ Heine, the motivation for the novel interface didn’t come from Microsoft. Rather, it’s the rise of online fan support of the previous games. “We direct the eyeed around on the Internet and saw players forming smaller SOCOM communities upon various message boards and websites,” he says. “We really wanted to pluck all of that together and proffer a place within SOCOM 3 where they could form a central community.” This community site will give players access to leaderboards, mail, message boards, FAQs, and thus on. Also, many of these features will be available via the one and the other the PS2 and any computer you advance across.

The ability to gaze up game stats on a PC may remind more [i]or[/i] less players of the much-praised Bungie.net website put up for Halo 2, on the contrary Sony CEA Senior Producer Seth Luisi claims SOCOM’ support in this area will outmatch flat that of the Xbox hit. “The community features that we’ve added to SOCOM 3 are far beyond those set in any other online action games,” says Luisi. “The SOCOM series has a history of innovating community features that other companies are just now starting to transcript such as integrated clans, ladder ranking [SOCOM I], and skill horizontals [SOCOM II].”

Mode 6 and manner 7

Supporting the game’s focus upon community is control point, a fresh online mode built around the idea of team communication. Here, each team has to mark five specific locations upon a map (control point is best suited for SOCOM 3’ larger battlefields), on the other hand the twist is that it’s not a pull of war. Instead, both teams can have marks upon the same location, so the way turns into a race to diocese which team can get to all the locations first. “Rather than obligating players to shield claimed locations, players are always upon the move to try and help in the fight for the nearest unclaimed control point location,” says Heine. “Players are going to find that the teams that emphasize communication and practice multiple strategies for reaching each ascendency point location will be real successful with this game type”

Convoy another all-new online way puts its emphasis on the vehicles. individual team has to protect and guide a cluster of vehicles through a map, stopping to pick up cargo along the way, while the other team tries to intercept just that. “These cargo traffics are an easy target for the opposing team to throw down and protecting the trucks will draw near down to how well the players upon foot can clear out the enemy positions and allow the players driving the cargo deals safely complete their route,” says Heine.

Clan Wars

Among SOCOM 3’ many fresh community features is a “clan challenge” a whole that, among other things, chops down a lot of the hassle involved in getting players together. “We wanted to streamline the proces for clans to strive against each other, and the clan challenge a whole does this by automating many of the paces that clans would normally have to do upon their own,” says Multiplayer Designer CJ

Heine. “Things that have been automated include finding suitable opposers to challenge, coordinating a time to play, and choosing any special game conditions.”

Clans will also have their be in possession of ranking ladders this time around, where the squad’s position will be based upon overall team performance instead of individual statistics. And owed to the increase in players allowed in a game at one time clans will now support up to 32 players.

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